by CBS 6 Albany
LONDON (AP) -- The Latest on the attacks in the London Bridge area (all times local):12:20 p.m.The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported Tuesday that Youssef Zaghba, the third named London Bridge attacker, had been stopped in Italy while trying to go to Syria in 2016.Zaghba, who was said to be born in Morocco to a Moroccan father and an Italian mother, was stopped at Bologna's Marconi airport on March 15, 2016, while he tried to take a flight to Turkey. He was allegedly on his way to Syria and was carrying only a backpack.The report said that Italy had put him on a watch list and flagged his presence to Moroccan and British authorities. The parents lived for a time in Morocco and when they separated the mother returned to Italy and re-established herself in Bologna.Zaghba was reportedly working in a London restaurant and had...

Just a year ago London maniac Khuram Butt was grandstanding on Channel 4. Now he's the SECOND 'jihadi next door' from that documentary to become a killer, writes RICHARD PENDLEBURY* Terrorist Khuram Shazad Butt featured in Channel 4's The Jihadis Next Door * He and his associates prayed before an ISIS flag in the middle of Regent's Park * Like many modern Islamic terrorists he's devout, tech savvy and misleadingly banal By Richard Pendlebury for - Daily Mail
His is the authentic voice of the 21st-century Islamist terrorist: devout, tech savvy and misleadingly banal. ‘Anyone got a smartphone?’ Khuram Shazad Butt asks in a Cockney Asian accent as he is filmed in Regent’s Park, Central London in July 2015.Dressed in an Arabic djellaba — a long robe — Butt is about to pray before the black flag of the Islamic State in the company of eight similarly clad associates, as...

Business Insider
by Christopher Woody
While geographically distant from the battlegrounds of Iraq and Syria, Spain has still become a focal point for terrorism-related activity because of its history and position between North Africa and Western Europe.In the years since the devastating 2004 train attacks in Madrid — the deadliest attack in Europe so far this century — Spain has intensified efforts to uncover, monitor, and disrupt terrorist activity and plots — though such networks have been resilient.Terrorism is not new in Spain. Starting in 1961, the ETA, a Basque separatist movement, launched hundreds of attacks around the country, killing more than 800 civilians and security personnel. (The ETA announced the end of its armed campaign in 2011.)But prior to the March 2004 train bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, Spanish authorities gave little attention to Islamist terrorism.Imad Eddin Barakat, one of the founders of Al Qaeda in Spain, was...

Clarion Project
By Meira Svirsky
One of the three jihadi terrorists responsible for the London attacks Saturday night was actively targeting children – easy prey, whom he hoped to radicalize.In fact, a neighbor of the terrorist, Erica Gasparri, an Italian mother with three children, reported him to the police two years ago after realizing he was “brainwashing” her children.“He was trying to radicalize the children, he would go down to the park and talk to them about Islam. He also came to the houses and gave the kids money and sweets during Ramadan,” Gasparri said, speaking to The Telegraph.Gasparri confronted him after one of her children came home from a local park saying, “Mummy, I want to become a Muslim” after encounters with him.Children are increasingly becoming targets for radicals. Their tactics range from threats, force and intimidation to more subtle methods of brainwashing through the media and school systems.Regardless...

Evening Standardby Tom Powell, Hatty Collier, Francesca Gillett, Jason Collie
Seven people have been killed and 21 others critically wounded in the terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market.Three suspects were also shot dead in the horrific attack just after 10pm on Saturday, while two police officers are among the injured.Assistant Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley revealed the death toll just after 4am on Sunday, as details of the attack began to emerge.Mr Rowley said police were alerted that a vehicle had run down several pedestrians on London bridge at 10.08pm, before it then drove on to Borough Market.At least three attackers then got out and began to stab people, including the on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the initial incident on the bridge.Armed police then confronted and shot the three killers in Borough Market at 10.16pm.The eight armed officers fired an "unprecedented number of shots"...

NBC New York
The NYPD has deployed its elite counterterrorism teams to busy areas of the city after multiple people were killed or injured in what British authorities described as terrorist attacks in London. The department said that while there were no specific or credible threats to New York City, it had deployed its Critical Response Command to tourist hot spots and areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, such as Times Square. An NYPD spokesman told NBC 4 New York that the department "is monitoring events in London and officials are in touch with their British counterparts." Gov. Cuomo condemned the attacks in a statement and said he has directed state law enforcement officials to step up security patrols at high-profile locations in the state, including airports, bridges, tunnels and mass transit systems. Mayor de Blasio tweeted Saturday that people in New York shouldn't be alarmed by the increased police presence....

Investvine
by Arno Maierbrugger
A new report by Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs released on June 1 noted that the terrorism threat to the city state reached the highest level in recent years. The ministry called on the public to be vigilant and be prepared in the event of an attack and urged to help detect and report radicalised individuals as part of a wider community effort against terrorism.“Singapore was specifically targeted in the past year and the regional threat has heightened,” the ministry said in its inaugural Singapore Terrorism Threat Assessment Report.The report, which will be published on a regular basis, said the threat in the region arises mainly from terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its affiliates such as Al Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiah. The siege of a city by ISIS in Mindanao and the following battle of radicals with the Philippine army...

by AAP
9news.com.au
Malcolm Turnbull says the threat of Islamist terrorism is worsening in the Asia-Pacific region.
The prime minister, who is in Singapore on Friday for security talks, says fighting in the southern Philippines city of Marawi - where ISIL-trained terrorists are entrenched in several neighbourhoods - is an example of this.
"The threat of Islamist terrorism gets worse in our region," Mr Turnbull said.
Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/06/02/11/58/terrorist-threat-worsening-turnbull#1YfGRYMuKGHVMlqc.99
...

Express
HOTBEDS of extremism have been uncovered across German cities which have already been targets for terror attacks.
By Rebecca Flood
The number of potential Islamist terrorists has skyrocketed in North Rhine-Westphalia over the past year, with Bonn, Duisburg and Düsseldorf revealed as central hubs of extremism. The security services confirmed the latest figures show the number of potential terrorists in 2015 was 161, increasing a by a third within a year. Bonn and its surrounding areas had seen the highest rise and was particularly alarming, German officials said. The number of radical Salafists doubled from 20 to 40 in just a year, while a confidential report Land Office of Criminal Investigations (LKA) identified 105 persons of interest in North Rhine-Westphalia, including 15 in Bonn.
The LKA refused to make an official statement on the statistics in the report.
And several other hubs were identified in addition to Bonn, with...

By Paige Williams - DefenseOne.com
WASHINGTON — NATO elected to join the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group at its meeting in Brussels last week, but "this doesn’t mean it will become a NATO mission or that NATO forces will engage in operations in combat,” according to the alliance's deputy secretary general.“Instead it will help as to coordinate better with coalition members and it is a strong symbol of our commitment to the fight against terrorism," Rose Gottemoeller told NATO's Parliamentary Assembly on Monday in the country of Georgia.Gottemoeller said NATO currently has 13,000 allied and partner troops in Afghanistan that train and assist Afghan forces. Following last week's meeting, NATO will be increasing this effort.NATO will also boost the use of its AWACS surveillance aircraft to facilitate airspace management. She said several allies have offered up airspace for refueling.Gottemoeller emphasized the importance of information sharing and coordination in...

by Kelly Cohen - Washington Examiner
More than 700,000 foreign travelers who traveled to the United States legally in 2016 overstayed their visas and remained in the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
"This report shows that we have a problem with visa overstays in the United States," a senior administration official said in a briefing with reporters on Monday.
Roughly 740,000 people remained in the country illegally at the end of 2016, according to the report — though some of them were short-term overstays. A majority of them were long-term overstays, though: Nearly 630,000 were still in the US at year's end, for a rate of 1.25%.
DHS said Monday that it is working to review the records of people violating their visas or visa waiver program, and is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to better deport those in the country illegally.
"Identifying overstays is important...

by Ken Stickney
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, has introduced two bills as part of a continuing, comprehensive reauthorization of the Department of Homeland Security.A spokesman for the freshman congressman said Higgins introduced House Resolutions 2751 and 2752 late last week to reauthorize the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agencies, both housed under Homeland Security.What was Clay Higgins doing in a Mexican drug tunnel?“ICE and USCIS perform critical missions within the Department of Homeland Security, to secure America’s borders and protect our homeland,” Higgins said in an issued statement. “The threats facing American families are evolving. It’s common sense that we should provide the DHS agencies with the necessary guidance and structure to adapt their mission and use resources more efficiently as they work to keep Americans safe.”Higgins’ bills are part of a broader effort launched by the House Committee on Homeland Security...

DW
For Europe, the period of grief following a terrorist attack has become routine. This may help to hide the feeling of helplessness, but DW's Felix Steiner asks whether politicians should do more to prevent such violence.UK Manchester nach dem Anschlag (Reuters/S. Wermuth)Once again, terrorism targets the center of a European city. Another attack on people - people just trying to have fun, people out for a good time. It was another suicide attack. And once again, the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) has claimed responsibility, even before the police made anything public.The choice of venue to attack - the Manchester Arena - seems particularly horrible this time: a pop concert. This means that among the victims are many children and young people. Those who can remember their teenage years, or who have kids this age themselves, know how exciting these kinds of evenings are for young people. They know how...

CNBC
by Nyshka Chandran
The world's best intelligence services can't always prevent certain kinds of terror operations, strategists warned in the aftermath of a suicide bombing that has rocked Britain just two weeks before a general election.Authorities simply cannot pick up all terror activities so society must be resilient in the face of what are inevitable attacks, Thomas Sanderson, senior fellow and director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC.The inevitable onslaughts Sanderson is referring to are lone wolf incidents — terror plots carried out by individuals who lack official assistance from established organizations. These radicalized individuals are often inspired by large networks, such as the Islamic State or ISIS, and conduct violence in support of these groups even without receiving financial assistance or resources.These culprits tend to have a small public footprint and rarely offer hints of attacks unless they speak about it online, Sanderson noted.The...

Press Trust of India
NDTV
Berlin: Warning that terrorism poses a grave threat to future generations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said forces of humanity should come together to combat the menace as India and Germany vowed to take "strong measures" against those who encourage, support and finance it. He made the remarks after over an hour-long wide-ranging talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a host of key issues like trade, skill development and climate change."The pace of development of our relations is fast, direction positive and destination clear. Germany will always find India as powerful, prepared and capable partner," PM Modi said at a joint press interaction with Ms Merkel.After the talks, the two sides signed 12 MOUs/agreements in fields like cyber policy, development initiatives, sustainable urban development, continued development of cluster managers and skill development, digitalisation, railway security and promoting vocational training. The two sides also issued...

by Ryan Mauro
Suspects continue to be arrested following the suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena, with 13 people arrested in the U.K. and Libya at the time of this writing. One person detonated the explosive but the attack was the product of a global Islamist insurgency—and insurgencies can be defeated if we learn from their operations.Here are 5 lessons from the bombing and follow-up investigation, in no particular order:It was a single bomb set off by a single jihadist, but he belonged to a hub in the Islamist insurgency. Apparently, independent Islamists often exist in geographic clusters that are linked together through a multilayered infrastructure. South Manchester is one such cluster.Earlier this year, The Guardian found that 16 convicted or killed terrorists lived within a 2.5-mile space in southern Manchester. That was before the bombing and the subsequent arrests in the area.Salman Abedi is believed to have links to...

By The Odyssean - SOFREP.com
Well… North Korea. Again.This morning, at 0540 Japanese Standard Time, a North Korean “SCUD” type short-range ballistic missile was launched from North Korea. This SRBM’s (Short Range Ballistic Missile) launch site was apparently the eastern coastal city of Wonsan. The missile was tracked for nearly six minutes by both USPACOM and the Japanese military before being lost in the Sea of Japan, approximately 300 klicks off the Oki Islands (part of Shimane Prefecture; actually a very cool place). So, off Japan’s *west* coast, between Japan and the Korean Twins.At this point, there is no report of any damage. Only hurt feelings. The Japanese government has already filed all the appropriate files, forms, complaints, teeth suckings, and TPS Reports.
This is a standard substandard KN nut-flex (which means it’s not much of a flex, or maybe not enough nuts…frankly, I’m not quite sure at this point). ...

By Marcy Kreiter
British police Monday arrested a student pilot in their effort to round up a terror network linked to Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi.The 23-year-old suspect, described as Libyan, was arrested in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex, more than 260 miles from where Abedi set off his bomb, killing 22 people following an Ariana Grande concert last Monday attended largely by teenage girls.The Guardian identified the suspect at Ala Zakry, who runs an online Tripoli marketplace called Hasoub Alafak, which offers international electronic funds and internet payment services, helping users to buy items on such websites as Amazon and then helping those customers import the merchandise. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act.Counterterrorism detectives searched a number of sites in Greater Manchester and Cheshire overnight, as well as a landfill near Bury.The Guardian said a colleague of Zakry’s said his family lived in Libya.Zakry’s mother described her son as...

By: Christopher Kelly - AirforceTimes.com
Memorial Day this year calls on all Americans with particular significance. It calls on us to look backward at our past and forward to the many uncertainties and challenges facing our nation overseas. Important anniversaries over the course of the past year have served as powerful reminders of that past. This past April, we commemorated the centennial of the American entry into World War I. President Wilson led us into the “war to end all wars,” ending America’s traditional isolationism. More than a hundred thousand Americans were killed in World War I, a war that claimed around 17 million total victims. Wilson conceived of the League of Nations as a means of ending costly and wasteful wars, but the U.S. Senate balked at joining the League. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles then created a 20-year truce rather than a lasting peace. Appalled...

Sputnik
The publication of leaked images of the Manchester Arena crime scene and evidence collected there could threaten the integrity of the UK’s active counterterrorism investigation into the horrific suicide bombing attack outside an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night, British police said.On Wednesday, the New York Times published photographs taken by law enforcement of the Manchester Arena attack aftermath, including the explosive’s potential detonator, shrapnel and power source. The US media has also already published the name of the suspected bomber, despite the objections of UK police.
UK officials are "furious" about the photo leak, the Independent reported, and the anger appears to reach the highest levels of government. Several British newspapers say UK Prime Minister Theresa May will confront US President Donald Trump about the leaks at the NATO summit on Thursday.​The UK home secretary, Amber Rudd, made "very clear" to US authorities only hours before the latest...